On the one hand, it is very encouraging to see Cort exhibiting such good form. On the other, it is incredibly frustrating that he can win a sprint stage, finish second in the ITT, and even place 11th on the MTF, and yet still get zero GC points.
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Thanks!
He missed the echelons. It happens. At least he is off to a solid start and his form bodes well for the coming months. Sometimes we get a bit greedy in this game lol.
One pick I am a bit with worried about is Søren Kragh Andersen. He hasnt raced a day yet nor is he listed for any upcoming race right now. Anyone heard anything about him?
I had a fairly poor week last week with some disappointing performances. I am more optomistic this week, with Dylan Sunderland in good shape to pick up a few points in Lngkwai and
Colombia:
Rivera
Ardila
Steimle
Alba
Jorgenson
Chaves
Provence:
Hirschi
Jacobs
Oomen
Dunbar
Bagioli
Quinn
Murcia
Kamna
Colombia:
Rivera
Ardila
Steimle
Alba
Jorgenson
Chaves
Provence:
Hirschi
Jacobs
Oomen
Dunbar
Bagioli
Quinn
Murcia
Kamna
Update #5: Amis Velo tops a busy week
There were stage races this week in the Middle East, Australia, two in continental Europe, and one ongoing in Southeast Asia. Although it's likely that more teams had a wider variety of riders scoring than last week, the weekly top scorers weren't anywhere near last week's 800+ highs. A lot of decent performances from less popular riders and big points from very rare riders this week, but a very exciting week with alot going on.
This Week's Top Scorers
Amis Velo tops the week with two riders scoring more than 100 points - Nacer Bouhanni nabbed 126 from Saudi Arabia (and is on 52 teams), while unique pick Tao Geoghegan Hart picked up 102 in Europe, which must be an encouraging start for someone having him as a unique pick. Beyond that, the team had a slew of riders such as Chernetski, Daniese, Cort etc scoring between 30-40, coming together for a solid week. Londonpat finishes only 6 points behind, having the top two in the Saudi Tour (Phil Bauhaus is only on 4 teams and scored 166 on the week, and is now only 30 points behind last year's score). EvansIsTheBest nabs a mention in third as one of the only two teams to pick Alexys Brunel, as well as the Bouhanni points.
This Week's High Movers
Things have settled a bit in week 5 after some huge jumps in the early going, but Jon Ezeitza still manages to top the week by moving up almost a third of the table, 34 spots. Their team has only 4 scoring riders this week, and the vast majority come from Tadej Pogacar (216 points, 3 teams) and the aforementioned Brunel. Londonpat is a bridesmaid again, sharing second place with Eric10.
Green Jersey Competition
Jakob747 moves into the lead of this competition after their team's third week in the top 4 out of the 5 weeks this game has been going on. will10 and Fivezzz stand pat while EITB has a second good week in a row, and Hakkie2 scores 6 points to separate them from the pack of weekly winners at 45 points, now out of the top 5.
Top 10 Overall
Hakkie2 stays on top, while EITB and Jakob storm the podium. The top 10 overall has settled down a bit as well after a volatile first few weeks, with the only new entry being Squire, coming at the expense of ChrisDK, who tumbles out of the top 10.
The early season hits keep coming this week, with Langkawi continuing, Colombia and Provence hosting their stage races, Murcia later in the week, and then Laigueglia kicking off the Italian calendar and Almeria too.
Spreadsheet at dropbox
There were stage races this week in the Middle East, Australia, two in continental Europe, and one ongoing in Southeast Asia. Although it's likely that more teams had a wider variety of riders scoring than last week, the weekly top scorers weren't anywhere near last week's 800+ highs. A lot of decent performances from less popular riders and big points from very rare riders this week, but a very exciting week with alot going on.
This Week's Top Scorers
| Rank | Team | Points this week |
| 1 | Amis_Velo | 444 |
| 2 | Londonpat | 438 |
| 3 | EvansIsTheBest | 391 |
| 4 | Jakob747 | 384 |
| 5 | skidmark | 358 |
Amis Velo tops the week with two riders scoring more than 100 points - Nacer Bouhanni nabbed 126 from Saudi Arabia (and is on 52 teams), while unique pick Tao Geoghegan Hart picked up 102 in Europe, which must be an encouraging start for someone having him as a unique pick. Beyond that, the team had a slew of riders such as Chernetski, Daniese, Cort etc scoring between 30-40, coming together for a solid week. Londonpat finishes only 6 points behind, having the top two in the Saudi Tour (Phil Bauhaus is only on 4 teams and scored 166 on the week, and is now only 30 points behind last year's score). EvansIsTheBest nabs a mention in third as one of the only two teams to pick Alexys Brunel, as well as the Bouhanni points.
This Week's High Movers
| Rank | Team | Up/down |
| 1 | Jon_Ezeitza | (+34) |
| 2 | Londonpat | (+32) |
| 2 | Eric10 | (+32) |
| 4 | Amis_Velo | (+26) |
| 4 | postmanhat | (+26) |
Things have settled a bit in week 5 after some huge jumps in the early going, but Jon Ezeitza still manages to top the week by moving up almost a third of the table, 34 spots. Their team has only 4 scoring riders this week, and the vast majority come from Tadej Pogacar (216 points, 3 teams) and the aforementioned Brunel. Londonpat is a bridesmaid again, sharing second place with Eric10.
Green Jersey Competition
| Rank | Team | Total |
| 1 | Jakob747 | 87 |
| 2 | will10 | 69 |
| 3 | EvansIsTheBest | 56 |
| 4 | Fivezzz | 55 |
| 5 | Hakkie2 | 51 |
Jakob747 moves into the lead of this competition after their team's third week in the top 4 out of the 5 weeks this game has been going on. will10 and Fivezzz stand pat while EITB has a second good week in a row, and Hakkie2 scores 6 points to separate them from the pack of weekly winners at 45 points, now out of the top 5.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Up/down | Team | Points |
| 1 | (-) | 1338 | |
| 2 | (+2) | EvansIsTheBest | 1317 |
| 3 | (+3) | Jakob747 | 1272 |
| 4 | (-1) | zaka_fan | 1237 |
| 5 | (-3) | western_grebe | 1205 |
| 6 | (+1) | 18-Valve. (pithy) | 1160 |
| 7 | (-2) | Marek | 1135 |
| 8 | (+2) | Object | 1121 |
| 9 | (-) | sodak_za | 1110 |
| 10 | (+6) | Squire | 1091 |
Hakkie2 stays on top, while EITB and Jakob storm the podium. The top 10 overall has settled down a bit as well after a volatile first few weeks, with the only new entry being Squire, coming at the expense of ChrisDK, who tumbles out of the top 10.
The early season hits keep coming this week, with Langkawi continuing, Colombia and Provence hosting their stage races, Murcia later in the week, and then Laigueglia kicking off the Italian calendar and Almeria too.
Spreadsheet at dropbox
I am happy that at least one of my picks (Hindley) has delivered already. Over 60% from last years points already picked up and it's early February.
I think these are my guys for this week:
Kämna, Pinot, Bagioli, Hirschi, Oomen, Quinn, Ardila, Aru, Steimle, Martinez
Kämna, Pinot, Bagioli, Hirschi, Oomen, Quinn, Ardila, Aru, Steimle, Martinez
Thanks for the update skidmark. I've only lead the competition for a week in 2012 so I'm bummed to miss out on the overall lead. But congrats to Hakkie2 that's a really good team they put together. With his guys dominating in Langkawi the gap is only going to grow from now on.
Respect to Jakob747 for going all in on the youngsters. Don't think there's too many teams with Pogacar/Higuita/Evenepoel but for the moment this team building strategy looks brillant.
Respect to Jakob747 for going all in on the youngsters. Don't think there's too many teams with Pogacar/Higuita/Evenepoel but for the moment this team building strategy looks brillant.
I was curious so went looking
He and Hodeg have traded 2 points from San Juan, looks like one of the results was wrong but now corrected on CQ.
I can't believe this.
I was going to write that I had a disastrous week, with Latour, Rosa, Yates, Power, Minali and Meintjes all disappointing massively and Moschetti crashing out, but then I climb 6 placings and into the top 10! If that's what I get in a disastrous week, I wonder what will happen in a good one!
Another concern is that Danny Van Poppel DNFed with the same leg injury that caused him problems last season. Might not be such a great pick. I feel like half of my riders have had a troubled start to the season, but if my team is doing this well, that must be the case for a lot of other teams, too.
I was going to write that I had a disastrous week, with Latour, Rosa, Yates, Power, Minali and Meintjes all disappointing massively and Moschetti crashing out, but then I climb 6 placings and into the top 10! If that's what I get in a disastrous week, I wonder what will happen in a good one!
Another concern is that Danny Van Poppel DNFed with the same leg injury that caused him problems last season. Might not be such a great pick. I feel like half of my riders have had a troubled start to the season, but if my team is doing this well, that must be the case for a lot of other teams, too.
The captaincy of my team (Bernal + Pogacar + Evenepoel) has started very well and for the moment it has given me 511 points, which is very good. The three will form a powerful engine and I hope they take me very high in the classification. Brunel cost me 34 and has already given me 107, which is a very good complement for my three captains.
Now I need the other 26 cyclists to start performing as their captains ... until they reach the podium.
Now I need the other 26 cyclists to start performing as their captains ... until they reach the podium
.
Celano already almost doubled his points, nice.
Now I only need to hope that not too many Chinese races won't get canceled because of the Corona virus, he could score a lot of useful points between those and the Tour of Japan.
Now I only need to hope that not too many Chinese races won't get canceled because of the Corona virus, he could score a lot of useful points between those and the Tour of Japan.
257 points already for Don Sergio, which is really great.
Unfortunately, the rest of my team has failed so far. Yates, Pinot, Kwiatkowski have gotten off to mediocre starts, Moschetti got a very bad injury after a great start, Latour sucked, Dumoulin (omnipresent so doesn't matter much) is mysteriously delaying his season start, Søren Kragh the same.
Unfortunately, the rest of my team has failed so far. Yates, Pinot, Kwiatkowski have gotten off to mediocre starts, Moschetti got a very bad injury after a great start, Latour sucked, Dumoulin (omnipresent so doesn't matter much) is mysteriously delaying his season start, Søren Kragh the same.
Don Sergio winning is not good for me though.
I may hold onto the lead this week thanks to Celano, but I expect I'll have to surrender to Jakob747's tandem of Higuita and Pogacar after the UAE Tour.
I may hold onto the lead this week thanks to Celano, but I expect I'll have to surrender to Jakob747's tandem of Higuita and Pogacar after the UAE Tour.
It's super early days, but I actually have tremendous respect for your squad. You had a good week - your duo of Celano and Ficara looks promising to say the least. They will be dangerous on the Asian circuit onwards I imagine. + races such as Sibiu ect. Excellent scouting!
Cort with his climbing/sprinting should also pay real dividends at some point. He hasn't scored tons of points yet, but the fundamentals are certainly there.
You also have Ivan Sosa of course - that's a dynamite x-factor.
Anyway, In reality, I think you are better off looking at someone like Squire he must be coming from behind fast this week. Excellent all-round squad.
I never considered adding Andrea Bagioli myself, to be honest, but it seems like a lot of dangerous opponents have faith in him. He had a promising debut in Provance, maybe he went too deep on the early slopes to Chalet Reynard, but he looks the part.
It's really exciting to see all the team building strategies come into play this year... definitely looking good in the early going for those who went all in on youth who had a great year last year but are looking to improve even further!
I had a subdued-but-alright week, with Kelderman and Pinot looking decent picking up 50 and 40 points in Provence (and Bagioli, Cort and Simmons all showed sings of good form, which should pay off at some point), Van Poppel getting fourth in Almeria, and Meintjes grabbing a decent-for-costing-107-but-really-should-have-gotten-more-given-the-competition 40 points in Malaysia. Chaves, who is somehow a rare pick, picks up a - here's the word again - decent 40 points in Colombia. Nothing really out of Murcia or Laguieglia, but I also didn't really have riders for them (aside from Canola, who has now DNF'd two relatively easygoing early season races, a worrying sign).
Some disappointing signs from some of my more popular guys (Dumoulin, Kwiatko) but I'm more interested in my rarest riders, which are (picked fewer than 30 times):
Marco Canola (7 teams)
Sergei Chernetskiy (8)
Esteban Chaves (14)
Nils Eekhoff (18)
Dmitry Strakhov (19)
Louis Meintjes (21)
Danny van Poppel (22)
Davide Ballerini (22)
Riccardo Minali (23)
Matteo Moschetti (24)
Wilco Kelderman (26)
Looked at that way, it's a pretty good week - 5 of those 11 guys got 40 points or more, and Minali picked up a few. Moschetti's injury is devastating but that'll happen to someone on your team in cycling, Ballerini I'm a bit more worried about after Jakobsen said in an interview he'd be his leadout guy, and Eekhoff hasn't even started his season yet. So those guys are doing well.
I had a subdued-but-alright week, with Kelderman and Pinot looking decent picking up 50 and 40 points in Provence (and Bagioli, Cort and Simmons all showed sings of good form, which should pay off at some point), Van Poppel getting fourth in Almeria, and Meintjes grabbing a decent-for-costing-107-but-really-should-have-gotten-more-given-the-competition 40 points in Malaysia. Chaves, who is somehow a rare pick, picks up a - here's the word again - decent 40 points in Colombia. Nothing really out of Murcia or Laguieglia, but I also didn't really have riders for them (aside from Canola, who has now DNF'd two relatively easygoing early season races, a worrying sign).
Some disappointing signs from some of my more popular guys (Dumoulin, Kwiatko) but I'm more interested in my rarest riders, which are (picked fewer than 30 times):
Marco Canola (7 teams)
Sergei Chernetskiy (8)
Esteban Chaves (14)
Nils Eekhoff (18)
Dmitry Strakhov (19)
Louis Meintjes (21)
Danny van Poppel (22)
Davide Ballerini (22)
Riccardo Minali (23)
Matteo Moschetti (24)
Wilco Kelderman (26)
Looked at that way, it's a pretty good week - 5 of those 11 guys got 40 points or more, and Minali picked up a few. Moschetti's injury is devastating but that'll happen to someone on your team in cycling, Ballerini I'm a bit more worried about after Jakobsen said in an interview he'd be his leadout guy, and Eekhoff hasn't even started his season yet. So those guys are doing well.
Next weeks Tour de Algarve will be very interesting for this game.
It will give us the first indication whether the game will be won by one of the 26 players who went for Evenepoel.
If it will be, you could become my main opponent.
If Evenepoel fails to live up to the hype, it's game over for both of us.
Regarding Celano being a result of great scouting, I tend to disagree. As a person who had him last year and spent the season watching him riding as poorly as he did and then fluking himself to some points in the Almaty Tour, I never considered him for a second for this season. But apparently it is a new Celano we see this year, and of course he now sits in the top 15 in the seasonal CQ ranking...
Pretty mediocre week, but some positives also. Kuss looked good and with Dumuolin, Kruijswijk and Foss not racing or injured at the moment he should get more own opportunities in the near future. Bagioli looks good. Cort looks good. Bouhanni too. Oomen was great to see, without making too much noise. He was there and looks like has recovered well. Just need some races. Kämna has had a really good start so far and he is my only hope for points in Algarve this week, because I dont expect too much from Modolo.
Ruta Del Sol looks better for me. I really hope Mas gets going here. A high finishing place on GC would make me feel a lot better about that pick. Soler and Fernandez should be good I hope. Latour is also another one that I hope gets going, but he has been picked by many so it doesnt really matter in that sense. Soler is in that too.
To the negatives.
Foss. Injured.
Geniez DNF on second stage at Provence. Havent looked into why but might be another horrible season.
Kragh Anderson, no word on. Does not look promising.
Mäder. No word there either.
Bardet I hope turns up his season a bit at Tour du Var.
Ruta Del Sol looks better for me. I really hope Mas gets going here. A high finishing place on GC would make me feel a lot better about that pick. Soler and Fernandez should be good I hope. Latour is also another one that I hope gets going, but he has been picked by many so it doesnt really matter in that sense. Soler is in that too.
To the negatives.
Foss. Injured.
Geniez DNF on second stage at Provence. Havent looked into why but might be another horrible season.
Kragh Anderson, no word on. Does not look promising.
Mäder. No word there either.
Bardet I hope turns up his season a bit at Tour du Var.
The guy was top 10 on the mountain stages of the Volta a Portugal, so you could speculate that he could do really well on the Asian scene. He was also rather cheap.
I'm happy about picking Ghirmay atm, he looks like a great pick.
Of course it is a new Celano we see this year. He stepped down from PCT to CT level. Such a move comes with certain "advantages" that are best discussed in The Clinic. But to me it was obvious he would return to his 2017 level.
And I was very surprised when I saw only 3 people picked him.
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